Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist & The Mysterious Dream Reviews
Without a doubt, Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is one of my favorite releases of this year. The graphics are top notch, gameplay is great, and the soundtrack is simply amazing. The story here is what I love the most. This is a positive story that is pure JRPG comfort food, and damn if we all don’t need some comfort right now. I was a little worried when this was announced and about how a follow up to Sophie would work, and I can safely say, I was worried for nothing. The game retails for $59.99, and I spent around 56 hours with this one. This a fantastic release in the franchise and a must own for fans. This title is very welcoming to newcomers as well, so if you never picked up one of these great JRPGs, now is a good time to jump in.
Atelier Sophie 2 has a well-built alchemy setup and battle mechanics that make it enjoyable even if the overall game has an outdated look. Hopefully, these fun mechanics will reappear in an expanded form in future Atelier games. In the meantime, savor this good dream!
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is an excellent addition to a high-quality RPG franchise. Although the final stretch ends up weakening the experience a little by taking longer than it should and making progress difficult, it clearly shows the great skill of developer Gust and any RPG fan should give the game a chance.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Atelier Sophie 2 resulted from Gust dropping the first game in an alchemy pot and boosting its quality and traits. It’s an interesting dedication to a years-old Atelier, revisiting systems even if they seem “dated” compared to the Ryza games, but altering them to still bring some flavor and iteration to the table.
This new sequel from Gust has a nice and sweet charisma that makes it easy to play, but it's not quite superior to what came before.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is the perfect way to celebrate 25 years of the franchise as it’s one of the best entries yet. The game has another interesting story as we get to join Sophie and a bunch of charming characters on an emotional journey. Furthermore, exploring and gathering materials is made more interesting by the new weather system, new layers to the battle system open up some fun possibilities and the crafting system is one of the most addictive yet. It was a surprise to go from Atelier Ryza 2 back to Atelier Sophie but it’s one that I’m very thankful the team sprung on us.
The upgraded alchemy system is the best fun part of Atelier Sophie 2. This game has innovated the classic turn-based combat mode in a unique way, and the improved encounter mode also makes me delighted. However, the story line is unremarkable, some items in the main story line are quite difficult to fabricate, some materials required for devising formulas are difficult to locate, and there are unreasonable aspects in the two-person alchemy system. All these issues will seriously undermine your experience in the game and preclude the game from being outstanding.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Atelier Sophie 2 adds a lot of interface and quality of life improvements that really create a seamless experience. This is a great place to jump in and experience the joys of alchemy, and we wholeheartedly recommend it for any enthusiast of stylized roleplaying games.
Regardless of my complaints, Atelier Sophie 2 does many things right to warrant a recommendation. It’s a great entry-level RPG with some intricate systems that will keep you entertained. The turn-based system might be a turn-off for some players, but I believe that we could work more with this genre, and Gust seems like they are willing to experiment more with it.
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is my new favourite Atelier game, it is a fantastic and perfect instalment to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise. Every gameplay mechanic and process has been improved upon, making Sophie’s latest adventure feel very fresh, new, and even more exciting than usual. The story was engaging, introducing new characters that you’ll instantly fall in love with due to their strong personalities and abundance of charm. If you’re a fan of previous Atelier games or JRPGs in general, you really should check this out.
Atelier Sophie 2 is a lighthearted yet engaging experience that is well balanced. Sporting first-class character design, music, visuals and combat. There is potential to get lost in this dreamworld, with most of the grind being trimmed allowing the player to simply engage. It does have it's rough edges, but depending on your interpretation and expectations of the story. Not for the hard of heart, it's plain to see that the team behind Atelier has a deep love for their craft.
Atelier games continue to be the mark of a consistently good franchise, and Sophie 2 does little to deter me from that sentiment. It’s the kind of game that deserves to be experienced alongside your favorite creature comforts and maybe a hot beverage to boot. Sophie’s latest outing most definitely deserves to exist, and those looking for a relatively easygoing and chill experience can’t go wrong here. It’s a worthy sequel to a cherished game, and a wonderful way to celebrate the joy fans have experienced over the years.
Atelier Sophie 2 is a very entertaining title, with an audiovisual section superior to what we have seen in the series and that, together with the playable novelties and its entertaining story, place this delivery among the best of the gust role-playing saga. That is no small thing for a 25th anniversary, although it arrives untranslated and some tasks are repetitive.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Atelier Sophie 2 stands as a wonderful achievement for Gust and the Atelier series. What we have here is an entry that feels like the perfect fusion of the old and the new. Sophie's new adventure may not have much to offer up in the story department, but it more than makes up for this with its streamlined design, thrilling combat, expansive world, and addictive alchemy system. This is a title we'd recommend to both longtime fans and newcomers-it's one of the best Atelier releases yet. If you're at all curious about this one, we'd strongly encourage you to give it a shot.
Atelier Sophie 2 follows in the same vein of its predecessors, refining the general formula while mantaining it pretty much intact. It's still a good comfort game, but it could use some work when it comes to combat and story.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is an absolute gift. Sophie is just as charming and inspiring as ever, and even though the story tacks on more dimensional time-travel drama than I would've cared for, it's just as touching and cozy of an experience as the first Atelier Sophie. Gathering, crafting, and battling are all plenty of fun too, and flooded with enough layers of mechanics that it's easy to pick an area you want to focus on and purely master that one element of the game. By looking to the past, this surprise sequel has delivered a promising vision of the future of the Atelier series.
Atelier remains the comfort food of video games, and Atelier Sophie 2 is one of the more comforting snacks. With so many dense and complex games releasing around one another at the moment, having something that is light, warm, and good-natured is a nice release. I don't know if launching immediately after Elden Ring and Horizon, and immediately before Triangle Strategy works in Sophie's favour, but if you can resist making those comparisons, what you'll see here is one of the most refined and beautiful entries in this long-running and utterly wonderful JRPG mainstay. The game deserves better than to be compared like-for-like with these other titles, as it no doubt will be.
Atelier Sophie has never been better.
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream has maintained the atmospheres that so convince fans of the genre and of gust RPGs and has managed to raise the quality of the gameplay by a step, adding some interesting elements both in combat and in exploration and in the game world, starting from the lack of loads in the fights, up to the possibility of drastically changing the weather in the map.
Review in Italian | Read full review